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The ballroom inside the Grand Wellington Hotel sparkled with crystal chandeliers, white roses, and cameras flashing from every direction as billionaire tech investor Nathaniel Hayes stood smiling beside his bride. / Chapter 5 / 10

Chapter 5 - The Fractured FamilyBy three o'clock that afternoon, news of Nathaniel Hayes’s emergency resignation as CEO hit the financial news wires.

The stock crashed another twelve percent.

Inside the sprawling Hayes family mansion in the suburbs, chaos reigned. Staff walked quietly through the marble hallways as shouting echoed from the grand study.

Nathaniel slammed a glass tumbler onto the oak desk, shattering it into pieces.

"Are you happy now, Mother?!" Nathaniel screamed, his face flushed deep red. "I lost the company! I lost the Sinclair merger! My name is a laughingstock across every financial network in the country!"

Eleanor sat behind her desk, holding an ice pack to her temple, her immaculate facade completely cracked. "I did everything to build your career! I protected you from that gold-digging girl in Nevada!"

"You didn't protect me! You controlled me!" Nathaniel roared. "You forced me to sign those security orders! You told me Emily was trying to destroy us, when all she wanted was for me to be a father!"

"She wanted our money!" Eleanor yelled back, slamming her hand on the desk. "She was a nobody from a rural town! Do you think she would have looked twice at you if you worked in a grocery store?!"

"She met me when I was twenty-two, Mother!" Nathaniel shouted, tears finally spilling over his eyes. "Before I had a single share in this company! She didn't even know who the Hayes family was!"

Eleanor froze, her mouth open, but no words came out.

The front door chimed downstairs.

Moments later, Harrison Sinclair stepped into the study, flanked by two private investigators. He didn't look angry anymore—he looked cold, calculated, and completely detached.

"Harrison," Eleanor stammered, attempting to smooth her hair. "We are handling the restructuring. The stock will stabilize—"

"I’m not here about the stock, Eleanor," Harrison interrupted calmly, tossing a thick yellow folder onto the desk. "My daughter asked me to look into the original registration of Hayes Global twenty years ago. Back when your late husband was running the firm."

Eleanor’s hands began to shake violently. "What are you talking about?"

"Your husband didn't leave you sixty percent of the founding shares when he died, Eleanor," Harrison revealed, a dark smile playing on his lips. "He left thirty percent to you, and thirty percent in an irrevocable trust for his first-born grandchild."

Nathaniel whipped his head around to stare at his mother. "What?!"

"The trust was conditioned on the child being born legally," Harrison continued, looking directly at Nathaniel. "Which means that the child currently sitting in Emily Carter’s stomach doesn't just inherit a fraction of your wealth, Nathaniel. That child legally controls the founding voting block of Hayes Global."

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Chapter 6 - The UnravelingThe autumn wind blew sharply through the gardens of Victoria’s private estate on the outskirts of the city.
Chapter 7 - The Gate of ReckoningThe rain fell lightly over the iron gates of the Sinclair estate.
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